What is a Dapple?Dapple is a pattern seen in Dachshunds. It is commonly referred to as "Merle" in other breeds of dogs (Collie, Sheltie, Great Dane, Australian Shepherd).

It is important to understand that dapple is NOT a color, it is a pattern. Dappling can be compared to painting a room in your house. Say you paint the room green. Before the paint is allowed to dry, you dip a sponge in white paint and then dab the walls with the sponge. For each spot that the sponge touches, you will have a lighter green marbling affect that results from the green and white paint blending together. Dapple works in precisely the same fashion. The dappling can occur on any color. A dappled black & tan Dachshund would leave a black base with a gray marbling affect. A dappled red Dachshund would result in a pinkish marbling affect. A dappled chocolate & tan Dachshund would create a cream marbling effect.

Precisely where the dappling chooses to occur is anyone's guess. In one litter of puppies, you can have puppies that are dappled from nose to tail or you can have puppies with nothing more than a dapple splotch on the top of the head. A well dappled puppy can go on to produce lightly dappled puppies, just as a lightly dappled puppy has an equal chance of producing heavily dappled puppies. There is never rhyme nor reason to how the dapple chooses to act on a puppy. There are responsible breeders who have worked to understand the gene and how it works. They've also put much into their program to produce healthy dogs, but, these breeders are far and few between. Puppy mills, pet shops and sadly, the Internet have capitalized on unsuspecting people and jeopardized many healthy dogs.

Double Dapple

Breeding dapple to dapple can produce Double Dapples and they can have very serious genetic issues that can cause puppies to be born without eyes, deafness and other body abnormalities. Double Dapples are not accepted by the Kennel Club UK or USA Clubs. Sadly, quite a few breeders in the U.S.A do breed DOUBLE DAPPLES. Currently in the UK this doesn't happen with responsible KC breeders. The reason breeders risk trying to breed a Double Dapple is that they will eventually get a normal perfectly healthy dog and that dog will look truly stunning (see picture below) with additional white patches over the normal single dapple. Double dapples can be bred by mating two dapples - the pups from that mating will be normal colors, single dapple and double dapple. If two double dapples are bred together then all the pups will be double dapples.

Double dapples can be identified by patches of WHITE in addition to normal dapple markings.

The big plus for double dapple breeders is a double dapple will always produce all dapple litters NO MATTER WHAT COLOR THE OTHER DOG IS so essentially this issue is more about disreputable breeders being greedy given dapples normally fetch more money than base colors and those who are prepared to maim a few dogs for the sake of pretty colors. We do not under any circumstance breed double dapples nor do we encourage anyone else to do so.

Sadly, the image to the left shows what can happen when breeding 2 dapples together. Is it worth it?

Black & tan double dapple, also incorrectly called silver dapple

Chocolate & tan dapple, with blue eyes smooth coat

Smith's Barkery

Isabella & tan dapple smooth coatPhoto courtesy ofL&R's Dachshunds

Red dapple with blue eyes, smooth coat

Smith's Barkery

Black & tan dapple, smooth coatThe black & tan dapple is also known as, even if incorrect as the silver dapple.

Smith's Barkery

Blue & tan dapple smooth coatPhoto courtesy ofL&R's Dachshunds

Not all dapples are born with blue eyes, but all blue eyed dachshunds are dapples and may also have piebald and the brindle pattern.It is only a myth that dachshunds with blue eyes are deaf or blind. They are a perfectly normal dog, with light colored eyes.